If the plaintiff’s name was FoodDelivery.com, and someone created GoFoodDelivery.com, then it would be a hard case. Food delivery merely describes the service.

But does “Waiter.com” describe the service of food delivery? Maybe at a restaurant. But if I heard there was a web site called Waiter.com, I’d probably think it was a resource site or job board for waiters.

One reason Waiter.com is clearly miffed: if you search Google for Waiter.com, its competitor comes up #2.

GoWaiter.com, it should be noted, has federal trademark registrations for GoWaiter and GoWaiter.com.

[Update 8/22/13: apparently Waiter.com ended up acquiring GoWaiter or its assets, but Waiter.com has filed another lawsuit alleging that the defendant is still using the marks. It appears the domain name still belongs to the defendant.]

Gowaiter has given up the fight after wasting so much money. They just said we will change our name. Now all the franchises are on the hook for it. They were told it would not happen but, if it did that the original parent company would pay for the change. That did not happen.